Last of A&M bonfire survivors strives for return to normalcy

Published: Tuesday, August 28, 2001

Associated Press

COLLEGE STATION {AP} Normalcy was all John Comstock wanted on his first day back at Texas A&M after being the last survivor to leave the hospital following the school's bonfire stack collapse almost two years ago.

"I want to get on with being a regular college student," said Comstock, 21, whose left leg was amputated above the knee and his right arm was partially paralyzed after the log pile fell, pinning him for nearly seven hours.

Comstock was hospitalized for five months after the Nov. 18, 1999, collapse that killed 12 Aggies and injured 27.

He had to have several surgeries and months of intensive physical therapy, and now uses a wheelchair and has been outfitted with a metal prosthetic leg. Comstock still goes to physical therapy three to four times a week, which he hopes will allow him to one day walk again.

But on Monday, Comstock was just another Aggie: He ate grilled chicken and fried shrimp at the school's main dining hall, spent time talking and catching up with old friends outside his residence hall and was five minutes late to his first class.

Comstock zoomed across campus on his motorized wheelchair, with a friend hitching a ride on the back, as he went to class.

"Coming back with a disability, learning the campus ramp-wise, being independent will be the hardest part of coming back to campus," said Comstock.

As he learned the route and the locations of wheelchair ramps from his dorm room to his first class, a business math course, a pair of fuzzy black dice bounced up and down on the back of the wheelchair.

While Comstock, a biomedical science major, is focused on the present, he still has an eye on one particular day in the future: the day when bonfire returns.

"I want to light it. I will definitely be there," said Comstock.

The 90-year-old bonfire tradition was suspended until at least November 2002 after the collapse of the wooden tower.